Politico: Outspoken critic of student loan debt issue set to join Clinton's team

Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State and current Democratic nominee for president, is adding one of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s close allies and a former executive at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to her transition team as she prepares for the coming election.

According to a report from Politico, Clinton is reportedly adding Rohit Chopra, who served as assistant director and student loan ombudsman at the CFPB, to her transition team.

During his time at the CFPB, Chopra was particularly outspoken about the impact of student loan debt on the first-time homebuyer.

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In October 2013, Chopra said, “The fact is student indebtness impacts the credit profile of first-time homebuyer. Three-fourths of the fall in household formation can be directly correlated to student debt.”

Chopra has also been closely associated with Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts and the driving force behind the founding of the CFPB.

Last year, Warren reportedly lobbied New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and others in his office in an attempt to see Chopra named as the superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, New York’s top financial regulator.

Chopra didn’t get the job.

Instead, Cuomo named Maria Vullo, a former staffer of Cuomo’s who served as Executive Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice when Cuomo was the New York State Attorney General, as the NYDFS superintendent.

Chopra instead joined the Department of Education as a senior adviser.

But now, he’ll reportedly be working with Clinton as she prepares for her potential return to the White House.

Warren has been vocal about her belief that "personnel is policy," and many Democrats expect her to have an elevated voice in Clinton's transition process, including through allies like Chopra.

Bringing him onto the transition team may help quell liberals' criticism of the appointment of former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as the director. Progressives have assailed Salazar’s positions in favor of fracking and the Asia-Pacific trade deal.

The choice may also indicate Clinton plans an aggressive approach to for-profit colleges and student loan companies if she is elected president.

The choice may also indicate the potential for a Clinton administration to take on student loan debt and its subsequent impact.

Ben Lane is the Editor for HousingWire. In this role, he helps set a leading pace for news coverage spanning the issues driving the U.S. housing economy and helps guide HousingWire's overall direction. Previously, he worked for TownSquareBuzz, a hyper-local news service. He is a graduate of University of North Texas.